Machine answer

Best local LLMs for Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB in 2026

Use this page when your real query is the exact machine, not a generic “best Mac” article. The ranking below is machine-specific, and the supporting links show where the evidence is benchmark-backed, sparse, or still fit-limited.

Current coding-biased answer for Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB: Qwen3.6-27B. Use Fit and Bench to verify how much headroom remains once you move past the default answer.

Silicon Score currently tracks 1 direct benchmark row for this exact machine across 1 model. Latest direct evidence date: April 17, 2026. Model catalog current through April 22, 2026; benchmark corpus through April 27, 2026.

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Best local LLMs for this Mac

17 current modelsCatalog current through April 22, 2026Benchmark evidence through April 27, 2026

Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB ranked for coding with a most capable bias, using the best available runtime evidence. focused on the current market set.

Mac

Capability

Bias

Runtime

Use the strongest current runtime evidence for each row.Largest fit: GLM-4.5-Air at MXFP4 (12B active / 106B total)Fastest read: Qwen3.5-4B at 148.0 tok/s on MLXFrontier watch: Gemma 4 31B, Qwen3.6-27B, Qwen3.6-35B-A3B +1 are current ranking candidates; sparse rows stay labeled until first-party evidence lands.Next featured Mac: Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB planned for June 2026; current default changes after arrival validation and clean first-party evidence.22 historical baseline rows hiddenBaselines

Current frontier watch

Fresh releases stay visible, but sparse evidence remains explicit.

Gemma 4 31B

released 2026-04-02 · 5 official specs captured · 4 benchmark rows · 1 Apple Silicon field source · first-party measurement queued · Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Best field report is 18.0 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.

Qwen3.6-27B

released 2026-04-22 · 5 official specs captured · 1 benchmark row · 3 Apple Silicon field sources · first-party measurement queued · Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Best field report is 17.3 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

released 2026-04-15 · 5 official specs captured · 4 benchmark rows · 6 Apple Silicon field sources · first-party measurement queued · Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Best field report is 203.1 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.

Gemma 4 26B-A4B

released 2026-04-02 · 6 official specs captured · 4 benchmark rows · 3 Apple Silicon field sources · first-party measurement queued · Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Best field report is 109.5 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.

Rank	Model	Score	Quant	Tok/s	Runtime	Evidence	Headroom	Context	Why it ranks here
1	Gemma 4 31B30.7B parameters	290	8bit	22.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 22.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	27.4 GB	28k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 22.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 27.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
2	Qwen3.6-27B27B parameters	280	8bit	16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	36.4 GB	118k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 16.6 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 36.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
3	Qwen3.5-27B27B parameters	277	8bit	16.1 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.1 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	36.4 GB	118k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 16.1 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 36.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
4	Devstral Small 2 24B24B parameters	274	8bit	23.4 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 23.4 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	39.9 GB	207k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 23.4 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 39.9 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
5	Qwen3.6-35B-A3B3B active / 35B total	252	8bit	48.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 48.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	30.3 GB	262k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 48.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 30.3 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
6	Gemma 4 26B-A4B3.8B active / 25.2B total	252	8bit	40.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 40.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	38.2 GB	133k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 40.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 38.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
7	Nemotron Cascade 2 30B-A3B3B active / 30B total	250	8bit	28.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 28.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	35.2 GB	523k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 28.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 35.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
8	Qwen3.5-35B-A3B3B active / 35B total	249	8bit	52.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 52.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	30.3 GB	262k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 52.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 30.3 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
9	GLM-4.7-Flash3B active / 30B total	247	8bit	58.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.0 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	28.2 GB	29k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 58.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 28.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
10	Nemotron-3-Nano-30B-A3B3.5B active / 30B total	246	8bit	43.7 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 43.7 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	35.2 GB	523k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 43.7 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 35.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
11	Magistral Small24B parameters	242	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fit-firstFirst-party M5 batch queued	39.9 GB	41k	8bit is the highest practical quality here. Speed still needs direct speed coverage. 39.9 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
12	Gemma 4 E4B8B parameters	230	8bit	78.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 78.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	55.4 GB	131k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 78.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 55.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
13	Qwen3.5-9B9B parameters	230	8bit	35.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 35.0 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	54.1 GB	262k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 35.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 54.1 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
14	Qwen3-Coder-Next3B active / 80B total	171	Q5_K_M	74.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q5_K_M · 74.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	9.8 GB	10k	Recent model release in the current catalog. Q5_K_M is the highest practical quality here. 74.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 9.8 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
15	Gemma 4 E2B5.1B parameters	170	8bit	95.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 95.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	58.5 GB	131k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 95.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 58.5 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
16	Qwen3.5-4B4B parameters	167	8bit	148.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 148.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Estimated	58.8 GB	262k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 148.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 58.8 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
17	GLM-4.5-Air12B active / 106B total	163	MXFP4	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: MXFP4 · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	9.6 GB	8k	MXFP4 is the highest practical quality here. 18.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with LM Studio wrapper on mixed as the best runtime hint. 9.6 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.

Machine

64GBUnified memory

$2,999MSRP

mac_studioForm factor

m4-maxChip